Beitbridge one-stop border gets a fillip

Industry has welcomed the signing of
an agreement of “mutual assistance
between South Africa and Zimbabwe’s
customs administrations” which is set
to boost efforts to establish a one-stopborder
post (OSBP) between the two
countries.
The agreement was signed
by president Jacob Zuma and
Zimbabwean president, Robert
Mugabe, during the first Zimbabwean
state visit in two decades earlier this
month.
“A move like this is extremely
important from an African perspective
but even more so for South Africa to
retain its gateway status,” said customs
consultant David Liebenberg. He
added that it would require the buy-in
of all parties to ensure success.
According to him, the relevant
authorities should work with trade to
establish the most favourable processes
around the establishment of the OSBP
– and ensure that the interaction is
positive, workable and has all parties’
interests at heart. “One only has to
look at how successful SA was when
we implemented the ‘new’ Customs
Procedure Codes. This was definitely
down to the fact that the South African
Revenue Service (Sars) collaborated
with trade prior to implementation.
This ensured that all parties were
aware of what was expected of
them and how the system worked,”
Liebenberg pointed out.
South African Shippers Transport
and Logistics Council (Sastalc) CEO,
Brenda Horne Ferreira, hailed the
move.
She said that the starting point for
successful implementation of an OSBP
between SA and Zimbabwe would be
political will and support for bilateral
trade facilitation. “National Treasury
is currently developing an OSBP policy
strategy and this ought to guide the
process going forward,” said Horne
Ferreira.
“The major stumbling block to this
is the fact there is no cohesion with the
two countries’ governing legislation.
It will also be a major challenge to get
all the different authorities – border
police, health authorities, immigration
etc – to sing from the same song
sheet,” said Liebenberg.